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3 Stabbed in Clash Between KKK, Protesters in California

February 28, 2016 8:56 AM

VOA News

Police talk to a victim of a stabbing incident near a Klu Klux Klan rally in Anaheim, Calif., Feb. 27, 2016. At least three people were stabbed, one of them critically wounded, when members of the KKK and counter protesters scuffled.

The police spokesman said six Klan members and seven protesters were arrested, and all face charges of assault with a deadly weapon.

The Ku Klux Klan was founded in the southern U.S. state of Tennessee in 1866, one year after the anti-slavery Union army defeated the army of the slave-holding Confederate states -- which broke away from the rest of the U.S. -- to bring an end to the Civil War.

Initially aimed at terrorizing newly freed African-American slaves, the KKK's ranks grew through the later part of the 19th century and first half of the 20th century as it fought against racial integration across the United States.

Klansmen were once the dominant political force in Anaheim, holding four of five City Council seats before a recall effort led to their ouster in 1924.